Wearables

Visa data shows one fifth of purchases at 2018 Fifa World Cup use contactless technology — Visa — “Visa, the official payment services partner of Fifa, today released an analysis of foreign travellers’ spending during opening days of 2018 Fifa World Cup. The results found that in the 11 Russian host cities of the tournament, approximately one in every five (17%) purchases with Visa used contactless payment technology, including smartphones, bracelets and rings. In the stadiums themselves, the share of contactless payments was 54%, inclusive of purchases made by fans from Russia and abroad.”

With this ring, I do my banking — Information Age — “An experiment in wearable payment tokens has become such a successful drawcard for new customers that Bankwest technologists have found themselves on a crash course in the dynamics of the fashion accessory market… Customers loved the rings so much that, despite the absence of formal advertising campaigns, they have proved to be adept at attracting new customers – who have snapped up half of all rings sold to date.”

Chase goes on the run with fitness wearables — JP Morgan Chase — “Now, eligible Chase Visa credit and debit cards can be used with Fitbit Pay, and on Garmin Pay — adding convenience and freedom to pay from your wrist, in addition to your smartphone or wallet.”

PARTNER NEWS: NXP’s new mWallet 2GO platform offers OEMs a pre-certified and validated turnkey payments solution and is being used by luxury brand Montblanc to add Visa and Mastercard payments capabilities to its watches, via its new Twin smart strap... More

Wearables favourite when paying — ABN Amro — “ABN Amro launched a pilot earlier this year in which 500 clients were asked to make payments using wearables. Of these clients, an impressive 78% now prefer the wearables, and only 19% prefer their debit cards. On average, clients make six payments a week for amounts under 25 euros. ABN Amro is extending the pilot to test new functionalities with this pilot group.”

Walmart files patent applications for drone shopping assistants and smart shopping carts — The Verge — “One of the patents is clearly for the in-store experience, and proposes a sensing device to make shopping carts smart and communicate with a mobile device… There’s also a patent that tracks users through wearables, and several for managing/sensing inventory levels. Walmart has also filed a patent for drones that would assist customers shopping in-store… There are also two patents for autonomous tech. One outlines a method for detecting items placed in a container.”

Samsung Pay continues global expansion with launch in Italy — Samsung — “Starting today, Samsung Pay is available to users in Italy with compatible Samsung devices, including wearables like the Samsung Gear S3 and Gear Sport, and the new Galaxy S9 and S9+… Several value-added features will be available exclusively to consumers in Italy. These include discounts up to 20% on popular brands, including Daybreak Hotel, EF Education, Leroy Merlin and Moleskin.”

Guess, Mondaine, Timex, Kronaby, Suunto, Adexe and LBS have all signed deals with Barclaycard to embed the card issuer’s bPay wearable payments technology “in a variety of timepieces, sports trackers and watch straps.”... More

Google Pay on Wear OS officially spreads to three new countries — Android Police — “In addition to using NFC-equipped watches to make regular mobile payments, users in Australia can use their Wear OS devices with the Opal ticketing system to pay for single-trip tickets on select rail and ferry lines… Formerly, Google’s payment service was only supported on Android Wear (now Wear OS) devices in the US and the UK.”

Fitbit introduces Fitbit Versa, the smartwatch for all — Fitbit — “Leave your wallet at home and easily pay in any store where contactless payments are accepted… Now available with Fitbit Pay on Fitbit Versa Special Edition products; supported by nearly 40 banks in 14 countries, through eligible US American Express, Mastercard and Visa cards, with more countries and banks rolling out in 2018.”

Next phase of contactless revolution sees rapid growth in mobile and wearable payments — Barclaycard — “The amount spent using Barclaycard’s Android Contactless Mobile facility has increased 365% year-on-year, while spending via bPay — a unique, flexible payments chip that can be embedded into a variety of products such as watches and jewellery — jumped 129%… Overall, contactless payments, including those made on a credit and debit card, have seen continued growth over the last 12 months, with a 79% uplift in spending.”

Over 175 million Europeans ready to pay with wearable devices — Mastercard — “Overwhelming success of contactless cards peaks shopper demand for wearable payments… One quarter (24%) of Europeans expect to start using ‘tap and go’ contactless payments with a smartwatch, bracelet, keyring or other forms of wearable payments.”

Samsung Pay now available for Commonwealth Bank customers — Commonwealth Bank of Australia — “Commonwealth Bank customers will now have access to Samsung’s contactless payments platform, Samsung Pay… Today’s announcement follows CBA’s partnership with Google in November to offer Android Pay on compatible devices at almost 800,000 stores across Australia. CBA customers have also been able to make payments on the go with Fitbit and Garmin’s new payment-enabled smartwatches.”

NXP and Garmin team up to bring secure and convenient NFC mobile payments to new fitness wearables — NXP — PARTNER NEWS — “[Garmin] has chosen NXP’s PN80T embedded secure element and NFC solution… ‘In collaborating with NXP, we can better provide the ultimate on-the-go lifestyle to our customers,’ said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of worldwide sales. ‘This technology, featured on the Vivoactive 3 and Forerunner 645 Music, enables customers to leave their cash and credit cards at home and securely make purchases where NFC payments are accepted.’”

The increasing diversity of devices, services and players in the mobile payments ecosystem has led to the need for standards and certification to manage fragmentation, prevent fraud and ensure consistent user experience, GlobalPlatform’s Gil Bernabeu explains in a new paper now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More

Mobile wallet spending surges over holiday period — ANZ Bluenotes — “ANZ data show a significant rise in the volume of mobile wallet transactions in December 2017, up 140% on the previous corresponding period… In December ANZ customers favoured their smartphones and wearables for 4.5% of all transactions, compared with 2% for the same time last year. ANZ data show mobile wallet transactions reached 3.9m in December, compared with 1.6m in the same month in 2016.”

Wells Fargo announces support for Fitbit Pay — Wells Fargo — “Wells Fargo is partnering with Fitbit, the leading global wearables brand, to launch Fitbit Pay to its customers, giving them the ability to conveniently and securely make purchases at merchants whose payment terminals are set up to accept near-field communication (NFC) payments.”

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